IAAF COUNCIL MAKES KEY DECISIONS IN MONACO

Today in Monaco, the IAAF Council has made key decisions on the venue of the 2023 World Athletics Championships, the status of the Russian Federation and presented a new marketing opportunity for Member Federations.

Budapest to host 2023 World Championships

The Hungarian capital Budapest has been awarded the IAAF World Athletics Championships in 2023.

Budapest is an experienced organiser of major athletics events, having hosted the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 1989 and 2004, one of just two cities to have staged the event twice. The city has also hosted the European Athletics Championships on two occasions, in 1966 and 1998. More recently, Budapest hosted the FINA World Swimming Championships and the World Judo Championships in 2017 and has been awarded the title of European Capital of Sport for 2019.

“In the past 30 years Hungary has organised every single world and European Championships, indoor and out – on the road, cross country – available to us except for the World Athletics Championships, and we are incredibly proud that this collection will be complete in just under five years’ time,” said Marton Gyulai, CEO of the Bid Committee for Budapest 2023. A key component of the bid is the construction of a new stadium that will serve primarily as an athletics facility.

The new stadium will be built on the eastern bank of the Danube River on the city’s south side, with a capacity of 40,000 for the championships, which will be reduced to 15,000 for future events.

Following the bid delegation’s presentation to Council, IAAF President Sebastian Coe said: “We are delighted to award the 2023 World Athletics Championships to Budapest in Hungary, a country of extraordinary athletic tradition and great experience in organising world-class sports events. It has been the scene of some of our greatest moments as a sport. We are excited about their plans for a new stadium that will become a great legacy for athletics.”

Budapest is the first IAAF World Championships host to be named under the new bidding process announced in February 2017 through which the IAAF assesses its strategic goals for growing the sport, targeting cities from countries and regions which will best assist in delivery of those aims. The aim is to create a true partnership matching the hopes and ambitions of potential hosts with those of the IAAF.

“We have been trying to become a partner for the IAAF as opposed to just a bidding city. As part of that process we have also been able to offer advice on seeing from the outside of things how things can be fine-tuned,” Gyulai added.

The Council also considered a bid from Australia to host the 2021 World Cross Country Championships but no decision was reached.

“We had an initial presentation from Athletics Australia outlining a proposed bid concept,” Coe said. “The Council requested further development of aspects of this bid concept.”

Russian Federation (RusAF) reinstatement status

The AIU must confirm that it has been given all of the data and access to the samples that it needs to determine which of the Russian athletes in the LIMS database have a case to answer for breach of the IAAF anti-doping rules. The IAAF Council was clear that Russian athletes cannot return to international competition unconditionally until that issue is resolved one way or the other.

RusAF must pay all of the costs incurred in the work of the Taskforce and in bringing or defending Russian cases at CAS. The IAAF Council was clear that this debt must be settled for reinstatement to occur; it is not fair to ask the IAAF and its other members to continue to carry these costs.

The Taskforce hopes that RusAF and the Russian authorities will now take all steps necessary to meet these conditions as soon as possible. The Taskforce stands ready to meet as soon as these conditions have been met in order to make a recommendation to Council for the reinstatement of RusAF.

Member Federation Opportunity

The Council voted to permit national teams, for the first time, to display the logo of a national sponsor on their kit for the IAAF World Athletics Championships (WCH) in Doha.

This will mean that the WCH will be treated in the same manner as all other World Athletics Series (WAS) events next year and will mean that Member Federations (if they wish to do so) can use the same kit for all WAS events including the WCH.

As is currently the case for WAS events other than WCH, Member Federations wishing to take advantage of the opportunity to feature a national sponsor on their kit must seek approval from the Steering Board, and the same national sponsor cannot have its logo appear on the kits of more than four Member Federations.